You know what I think what went wrong with this episode? I think the movie ran too long so they trimmed a bit so it would fit in the two hour time slot. Unfortunately, they scenes they decided to clip were essential in fully explaining the ending. I can't think on any concrete examples at the moment, but I'm sure I've read about similar things happening from time to time with other shows. The edits probably occurred at the last minute prior to airing. Or maybe they did it to the final draft of the script and no one noticed until the movie was complete and by that time it was too late to shoot the scenes because it needed to be aired? Larry Cohen (better known for directing horror movies like IT'S ALIVE and Q THE WINGED SERPENT) is a much better writer than this and I'm convinced that something along these lines must have occurred.
It'd be great if deleted scenes to OLD PORT were discovered in a vault somewhere.

No, you are not alone. I don't like this episode much either and have posted on that a lot in the past, and it boils down to the simple fact that I don't find Pleasance a sympathetic character at all, and certainly not of the kind that Columbo should feel sorry for apprehending. MAYBE, if Adrian Carsini were an honest, good buisnessman who ran his winery efficiently and Ric was preparing to sell it just to spite him, but Adrian we learned was (1) a lousy businessman who ran the winery like a toy and (2) his whole conversation with Ric before killing him where he prattled on about how superior his breeding was by virtue of his English mother compared to Ric's mother is the most arrogant comment I've ever heard from a Columbo killer, even more arrogant than any line Jack Cassidy ever uttered. How does this add up to a guy one should feel sorry for?

If I want to pick a killer I felt sorry for, I'd go with Grace Wheeler in "Forgotten Lady". But not Adrian Carsini in a million years (no knock on Donald Pleasance, who is a fine actor, but with the singular exception of his wonderful "Twilight Zone" episode "The Changing Of The Guard", he is not the kind of actor who ordinarily exudes sympathy anyway. This is a guy who played 007 archvillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Heinrich Himmler among other roles, for instance).

Perhaps those who sympathize with Adrian do so because of the unrequited love of his secretary. Couldn't he have "used" her to get him off, but instead chose a more honorable way out: arrest for homicide?

Perhaps, but even there his confession was one done entirely without any remorse (by his own admission) for a crime done for ultimately the pettiest of reasons.

Eric...when you mentioned the Twilight Zone episode with Donald Pleasence, The Changing of the Guard, my heart lifted. What a wonderful episode. I have it on tape and I put it in my vcr, but my freakin vcr is being a pain... I can't play it, nor can I eject it, so I couldn't watch it on our other vcr....I am a bit angry right now.......I wanted to post what he exactly says at the end...about how he left his mark upon his students, and he will never be ashamed to die..because he has won that small victory for humanity..........it was so beautiful......

I don't think it's that difficult to sympathise with Adrian Carsini, when you compare him to his brother, who wanted everthing for nothing.

Carsini was not a shrewd businessman, but he was dedicated and professional and he had spent about half of his life building-up the reputaion of the family's vineyard.

The point about the lack of proof in relation to Carsini's guilt is very valid - it's merely circumstantial evidence: we know that Carsini would not have been so careless to let the wines oxidise in his cellar....

Personally, I liked the episode a lot, even though a mutual respect develops between Columbo and Carsini (some of the best episodes in the series invariably displayed sour relationships between detective and murderer!).

I think there's a goof with the weather too - I'm pretty sure that when Columbo finds out the weather on the day of the murder, it was showery and about 50 odd degrees (Fahrenheit?). How the hell do it shoot up to over 100 degrees on one of the days thereafter?

I watched a little of this last night. I had never noticed that the actor Regis Cordic who plays Lewis (one of Carsini's wine drinking buddies) also plays the Deputy Commisioner in Candidate for Crime.